itaexpat

My apologies if there are other threads similar to this, but every individual situation is different...

In July 2018, I reached Silver; in May 2019, I became Gold. I am 95% certain I will not be able to make Platinum next year, but my chances to remain Gold are good if I work hard on it, do some planning, and maybe suffer through unnecessary layovers. However, reading the program rules on the Flying Blue website, I'm unclear whether I need to earn 180XP by end of May 2020, or if the three month grace period also counts as qualification.

I'm going to get to 119XP in December, so I'm sure to keep Silver. But the remaining 61XP are a bit more of a gamble and depend on whether I can score business class flights for work trips before May. I live in the United States, where domestic first class for work trips gets me 12XP max on nonstop return flights even if I fly all the way to California from Boston (before you ask, no, it doesn't make sense for me to switch to Delta SkyMiles). My company places a cap on flight purchases and international business is very often above that cap (and often too much above that cap to justify forking personal money to cover the extra costs). However, if I have until August to earn the remaining 59XP, I can take it much easier.

So my questions are:
1. What happens to my XP if I don't maintain Gold by May 2020? Is that when the counter resets, or does that happen in August?
2. Any tips on mileage runs and/or maximizing XP when based in the US? I always fly Delta domestically and always AF/KLM/Delta/Alitalia internationally (I am from Italy and credit personal trips back home to FB too, that's typically 30XP because, well, personal usually means economy class trip). I already have the Flying Blue credit card, so most I'll earn on that is 20XP for my anniversary this November.

Thanks!

canadavid

1 - On May 31st, if you did not reach 180xp, your xp will be deducted by 100xp and your status will change to silver 3 months later. You then have 12 months (from June 1st) to reach 100xp or 180xp to maintain or upgrade your status.
2 - I remember to read a few months back that you can get cheap business class flight from US to canada with delta and get 30xp per return (200-250US$ for NY-YUL). Probably the same from the west coast to vancouver or calgary

Édit : you are right. I thought it was only if you maintain your status

fredo1664

I thought that if you had for example 150 xp at the end of your period as gold, flying blue would not remove the whole 150 but only 100, which is the price of one year of silver, and you would start your new period as Silver with 50 xp. Am I wrong?

DeppityDawg

No, you are right, you get to carry over those 50 XP after the 12 month qualification period.

What I am not sure about is whether you still get another 3 months as Gold, or if you soft-land immediately to Silver. It seems like Gold status should be good for 15 months, but then this raises the question: What happens if you reach 180 XP (or 300 XP) during those extra 3 months as Gold?

Fabo.sk

Yes, the status is good for qualification period +3 months, up to 16 months total (if you manage to qualify on 1st, the qualification period runs until end of the same month next year.)

If you managed to get to 180XP, including up to 79 XP carried over, within the three months, then your qualification year is reset in the same manner (end of the same month next year) and your status is worth for three months after that. (meaning, if you managed to amass 300XP in the three months, you'd be Gold and 120XP up on your way to Plat.)
I don't know if that would be enough to count for PFL as not lapsed, in the same situation but Plat soft landing to Gold, but I think not.

NickB

AIUI, the 12 month silver requalification period runs from June 1st, i.e. from when the qualification period for Gold expired rather than starting 3 months later (even if the Gold status survives 3 months).

itaexpat

That was my subsequent question too. I guess there could be a scenario in which one may soft land to Silver for a few months but then requalify for Gold shortly thereafter. I know I have some potentially lucrative trips coming up after May, so hopefully that’s enough to bump me back to Gold even if I may be downgraded to Silver for a few months.

and let’s be real... FB Gold means little in the US where Delta status has four tiers (though I was upgraded to Delta Comfort+ on a personal trip once) but it goes a much longer way in Europe, or so I find during my semi-frequent European trips.

atflyer

I am pretty sure that if you do not requalify for Gold by May, you still have 3 months left with Gold benefits. But your MUST then gain 180 XP to upgrade to Gold afterwards. So keeping status is really better (example - say you end in May with 150 XP - you are deducted 100 XP for silver and are left with 50 XP, you must gain 130 to become gold. If before may you manage to get 30 from somewhere, you have Gold for another year).

And yes. Main benefit of Gold is lounge access - on international flights. For me from NL, all flights are international. If you fly mainly in the US, no access which reduced FB Gold benefits drastically.